get busy living

2009-06-11T23:25:00.002+08:00

well, it's about time that WHO declared pandemic status to swine flu... but why bother? everyone has already reached that conclusion.

and frankly, it seems like no one really gives a damn anymore. after the initial scare, the media has (successfully) instilled into the public the mentality that swine flu is not very deadly, and that (almost) everything is under control. well the public caught on to this, and now they're busy not caring about its spread. or so it seems.

of course, control measures are in place, but are they effective, and are they in proper use? installing thermal scanners in the airport seems to be particularly useless.. look how many has slipped through this "safety measure". and if no one bothers about taking precautions anymore, is there even a point?

the whole mentality of this pandemic is seriously different from the last time something like this happened... sars. sars well, really made people panic and go all crazy with protective measures. but swine flu? not even close. maybe it's cos i'm in a different city (which doesn't really give a damn about anything, even elections), but judging from friends' responses, even usually kiasu n paranoid people in sg don't give a damn..

ah well, just let it spread around la. hopefully it'll only be rather infectious, and not highly pathogenic. then all will be happy. lalala.

2009-06-07T07:25:00.003+08:00

question spotting now.. or more like question-type spotting... judging from past years' papers, the questions come from a range of lecturers, that doesn't change at all. so, if there are two questions set in a certain section, i can choose to study everything one lecturer taught and foresake the other lecturer's stuff. sounds good in theory. but if things suddenly change, i'm so screwed.

2009-06-02T07:23:00.001+08:00

revise until so stoned... that i'd rather sort out my music collection. the unsorted songs that i haven't added - which is in a huge mess -_-'''

ah well, at least i'm doing something remotely constructive.

2009-05-30T00:28:00.001+08:00

damnit. every now and then my mind drifts off thinking about what i'm gonna do when i get back. i got a whole list and it's just getting longer by the day.

anyone keen on these stuff?

2009-05-24T08:23:00.002+08:00

sometimes i think that the discussion board on blackboard (my online portal for all my coursework) is greatly abused. someone posted this question:

"In the structure of FAD on slide 18 between FMN and AMP is there supposed to be a phosphodiester bond, like in NAD, or are the two phosphorous atoms supposed to be directly linked?"

2 things come to mind immediately.

1: isn't it easier to go wiki it up? it takes much fewer characters to type and you get a response so much sooner. it's not like someone purposely went to create a whole fake page to fake out everyone... trusting something like wiki is probably safer than the lecture slides, which are usually fraught with errors due to typos or unupdated stuff...

2: were u tryin to memorize the structure of every single molecule that exists in the cell? if u are, good luck. now i know why u think that the course is so impossibly tough. it's really tough of people lacking common sense. well, i bet someone's gonna try to memorize the primary structure of RNA polymerase or some other ridiculously complicated thing in the hopes that they'll get marks for "outside reading"... common sense is rare these days...

and i'm short on sanity these days.

2009-05-21T15:38:00.001+08:00

maths n computing has ended their exams liao.

i'm still 34 days from ending my exams.

sian.

2009-05-15T07:16:00.000+08:00

when you begin to dream about RNA polymerase....

you know you're traumatized by your essay.

2009-05-12T23:20:00.002+08:00

seems like alot of ppl in my course is getting rather jaded.. especially with this most recent tutorial... seems like a few groups (including mine) got a difficult topic to do, and our deadline is ridiculously short. 3 days. it's usually 1 week. and it doesn't really help that the lecturer in front of the 1st years is mocking all of us, saying stuff like "life sucks. deal with it." and similar stuff.

ah well. i guess the grade distribution histogram for this essay will be catastrophically bad. and each essay is only worth like 33% of 5% of 25% of 5% of my final grade. lalala...

2009-04-25T09:27:00.003+08:00

i juz spent almost 3 hours drawing out the glycolysis and krebs cycle diagrams on my notes.

it would have been half the time, if i didn't screw it up at the last possible moment. and redrew it.

i forgot to leave space to fit in the fat metabolism pathway.

TO HELL WITH FATS.

=/

2009-04-15T06:17:00.002+08:00

about 10% of my mugging completed in 5 days. that's not very good progress but it should increase.

could have been 11% if i kept on going, but it's probably more important to regain my circadian rhythm instead of bashing it further to death. working with a lack of sleep isn't fun, even though i'm having trouble dozing off in the library (amazingly)

my wake up time has never been more reliable. somehow, at 7.30-8.00 i'm definitely awake. which sucks when you decide to sleep late. seems like i'm not cut out to be nocturnal (though most of my habits are...)

2009-04-11T03:12:00.006+08:00

okay.. time for abit of an overdue post... was too lazy to blog. i even chose to mug instead of blogging. powerful, huh.

well anyway about my trip. went to berlin, dresden, prague and vienna. 10 days! 10 days of laughter and eating oily and salty food! i probably consumed 2 months' supply of salt in those 10 days...

well here are photos to accompany my rambling.

in berlin:

a section of the berlin wall.

the reichstag building. it's their parliament. it got bombed to bits during WWII, so it got reconstructed.

and they added this dome on top. anybody can go inside the dome. it overlooks the debate chamber. so when the members of parliament are debating in parliament, they can look up at the dome (and the people inside) and be reminded of their duty to serve the people. cool rite.

bradenburg gate. it used to be the entrance of a palace long ago. the statue on top got looted by napoleon when he conquered berlin, then when napoleon got defeated, the statue came back, except they decided to give it new decor.

holocaust memorial at a concentration camp on the outskirts of berlin. the concentration camp wasn't a death camp like auschwitz, but more like a labour/torture camp. still they had rather sick torture and terror implements.

in dresden:

statue of king august the strong. the horse looks really fat. and ugly. apparently people riding horses on 2 legs usually died in battle. however this guy didn't die in battle... so much for that helpful trivia that fails.

zwinger palace. super beautiful and grand.

the state opera house interior. it's very richly decorated. it even has fake (painted) wood and marble. cheapo people.

in prague:

random canal in prague. the buildings are very nice. however, the city is a tourist trap. even all the roads are getting relaid as cobblestones to "beautify" the city to tourists. what a con job.

cityscape of prague from somewhere near prague castle.

inside prague cathedral. the stained glass makes for nice colours.

a group shot using 10s timer. 2nd attempt at the shot. long enough for idiots to notice and disturb us.

bone church in kutna hora, a town in czech republic. apparently so many people wanted to be buried there they ran out of cemetery space. so they exhumed most corpses and started decorating the church with their bones.

charles bridge. it was commissioned on an auspicious time, 1357, 9 july, 5:31. and what's the construction work going on? laying cobblestones -_-'''

in vienna:

a palace in the middle of vienna, with an entire row of horse carriages inside. and horses have loose bowels.

1 of our spastic jumpshots. we took quite alot of them. i'm not in most cos i'm usually the photographer. -_-'''

apparently vienna is famous for their amusement park. however, this is the only ride which caught my attention. it's like a super-viking.

another palace, this time on the outskirts of vienna. probably some summer palace of sorts. and they have alot of land to waste, seriously.

mozart's grave. what more is there to say about this.

well... decided to only upload so many here. anymore and it'd get boring. for the reader and me too (writing captions is tiring)... well, for more photos (with captions), go facebook. i spammed photos there....

time to go back to mugging!!! =S

2009-03-27T19:02:00.002+08:00

yay! spring term is over.. lalala. now for a holiday followed by mugging =S having 215 lectures (1 lecture = 1 hour) means a lot to mug for... time to enter pure mugging mode very soon for the 1st time in over 3 years!

2009-03-20T23:47:00.002+08:00

why must every darned thing change to some "new layout".. so annoying. especially when the new layout is more user-unfriendly than the previous...

facebook changed. i'm not so annoyed by that. however, is there a way to configure my freakin feed? i don't want to see all the notes ppl post... "how good is your singlish", "what bleach character are you"... yadadada. I DON'T BLOODY CARE! there's too many idiots posting these crappy "tests" that i can't block them all to get rid of them... zzz.

msn changed too. what happened to my "out to lunch" status? removed. great. nevermind. more annoying is the fact that i just lost all the individual personalizations to the chat windows. takes damn long to put them back.... -_-

2009-03-17T05:13:00.004+08:00

singapore society major event was 2 days ago.

a resounding success. almost everything went well, with very few screw-ups, if the audience could detect any. the whole performance went beyond my expectations, with the actors taking their jobs to a whole new level and the techincal and logistic aspects performed brilliantly. the lights were perfect and added a whole new dimension to the play. videos would not do justice to how good the light effects really were.

what was my part in all this? i was actually the director. somehow, for a person with almost no interest in the arts, to become the director of a musical involving over a hundred people, with original script, dances and songs, is quite unbelieveable.

it all started with my friend (my senior, the current (for 2 more days) singsoc vice-president asking me to help to write the script for the then-unnamed play. i was 'told' that i was roped in for my 'lame input' to add a new dimension of laughter to the play. so i said okay.. little did i know that scriptwriter=director. and when i figured that out, it was a little bit too late to back out... oops. so just proceed on lor...

i spent probably about 50 hours, probably much more, slaving over the script, editing it to make the script flow smoother and lines more powerful. the best part is, i was supposed to generate the lame parts. instead i wrote the most emo and angry parts of the musical. fantastic, huh.

then another dunno how many hours directing and fine-tuning the acting. watched the performances so many times, until i can watch the whole production without a single hint of emotion. just numb to it totally. at least i managed to watch the actual musical, cos i was at the back of the hall doing the sounds! ok la, i still had work to do. but it was still good stuff!!!

haha now everything's over, most people are emo-ing over post-production blues. watching videos of the various performances, reminiscing about the endless rehearsals, etc. i'm just happy it's over so i can get back to clearing my backlog of work. now i have successfully regained my afternoons!!! haha.

ok some pictures. wrote too much... i couldn't take pictures of the actual performance for rather obvious reasons.

the stage with the logs crew plus some of the cast!

my playground. the lights and sound controls.

this photo is epic.

the chicken! and the super-pro dancer and choreographer yvonne!

some cast plus musicians!

as usual i only put up 5 photos. uploading photos on blogger is tiring.

can't wait for the dvd of the production to be finished!

2009-03-02T06:29:00.002+08:00

my ob (biology of organisms) essay is on wind power. somehow that doesn't sound right. what does wind power have to do with biodiversity and stuff? just because my tutor this time is involved in this field of research, he doesn't have to drag his tutees to do stuff irrelevant to them... ah well.. suck thumb lor...

well, my essay would be so much easier to write, if he didn't add the words 'energy shortage' to the title of the essay... it's so much easier to talk about the environmental impacts instead...

2009-02-22T23:00:00.003+08:00

spring is rolling right along now... tomorrow's the official start of spring!! (i think). well, the weather's improving vastly. less than a month ago, the freak snowstorm caused temperatures to drop to minus 10 (which is like the 1st time this winter that temperatures were negative for more than 24 hours) the temperature now hits up to 15 degrees, which is quite shiok to walk around in... just 1 windbreaker is enough.

and i dun need to cooped up in the gym! the weather's warm enough to actually run around outside without freezing in your stride and waiting for snow to come to turn you into an actual snowman...

well regarding snow, there was just 1 ridiculously huge snowfall and that's about it. not much more snow fell. and the weather forecasters were predicting sustained bouts of snowfall for 1 week. so much for accurate forecasting.. but that was enough snow for the giant snowball in the middle of my school to survive for 2 weeks!

now to wait for temperatures to stabilize at 25 degrees.

2009-02-16T21:18:00.002+08:00

there's a few things that r annoying the heck outta me in my room. i'm rather immune to influences outside of my room (read the club jus literally 20m away from me) but the influences inside my room is getting bloody annoying.

which is why i REALLY want a single room next year.

first is my pure hatred for the snooze button. WHO THE HELL INVENTED THIS?!?! i would really love to slaughter that person. cut into bits and pieces so small until he turns into pulp. people who use the snooze button (in other words my roommate).. don't they realize that they get more sleep (and more restful sleep) if they do NOT snooze at all?!?! what's the point when u hit the god damn snooze button SIX FREAKIN TIMES!!!!! that's one hour, bloody hell.

not to mention when he leaves the room when the snooze goes off. i'm on the verge of flinging his alarm clock out of the window.

next peeve of mine is my roommate's (who else) tendency to walk up and down the room, and into the toilet. is the toilet so appealing that you have to visit it for absolutely no purpose every oscillation of your pathing in the room? if u wanna use the toilet, STAY INSIDE IT. u walk up n down, i also need use the toilet, u noe? and having a person pace up and down the room is ridiculously annoying. i wanna put a landmine in the middle of my room that activates if stepped on like 6 times in a minute liao.

and 1 more thing that pisses me off is when he opens the window for ventilation and to cool the room down. yeah yeah, makes good sense. but not when u leave the bloody window open for so long until the room becomes DAMN COLD inside la! u want cold air so badly i lend u a rope go hang yourself outside the window la. don't make the room any colder. i dun wanna wear a damn jacket inside my own room.

2009-02-02T09:04:00.002+08:00

omg. it's like snowing like crazy in london now. like forcasted to have 6 inches of snow??! there's a massive snowfight outside my room now.. participated in it for almost 2 hours.. now hiding in warmth. tired... it's supposed to be the worst snowstorm in 6 years, or it could be even bigger? who knows.. hahahaha.

well cambridge was fun! go there look look see see! very nice place. punting was fun! it's like the gondola thingy, u use the stick to push against the riverbed to move forward. damnnnn tiring and hard to steer.. was quite fun until it snowed... -_-''' ah well.. at that moment the snow was the heaviest for the day. then go back london.. omg.

i'm gonna gather ppl 2 build snowmen tmr morning!!!

2009-01-30T06:50:00.002+08:00

in the spirit of chinese new year, i've been physically dyed red. by accident. in the lab. and i was the hapless bystander.

to be precise, i got splashed by a chunk of acetocarmine when the bottle dropped from my friend's hands. it's those kind bottles with a dropper in it.. guess how it dropped all of a sudden. so my lab coat has splotches of acetocarmine on it, together with my shoes, bag and.. MY FACE!

for those who don't know, acetocarmine is a red colour dye which contains acetic acid (i think) as a solvent probably. and well, it stings bare skin. not to mention bare skin on the face. 2 drops landed on my face. and did i mention, it's a dye? so it dyes anything it touches?

well, apart from the obvious rinsing in water to remove the stinging, i spent like damnnnnn long trying to wash away traces of the dye. at least it's red, not like blue or green.. less obvious on skin -_-

and now the pristine white state of my lab coat is wonderfully stained with artistic touches of red, making me look like a serial killer.

2009-01-18T03:41:00.003+08:00

ouch.. now is ppl cause injury to me, not the other way round. kena zhammed on the follow-through of a floorball stick. where? the tip of my right thumb. now it's nice and black. can feel it throbbing...

and typing's a pain in the ass. can still use the thumb, cept pressing the spacebar is now abit awkward (i use my right thumb most of the time... -_-''')

ah well. can't imagine how writing will feel like... at least my exam's over and dun need to write much for now.. haha.

2009-01-16T02:07:00.002+08:00

i'm loving streaming. my last 4 minutes of marley and me got cut off as the video got taken down while i was watching it. -_-''' and can't find another good link. buffering takes eons and tonnes of luck.

so sad. i dun think i'll watch the last 4 minutes of the movie. plus it was rather sad. sadder that i can't see the ending properly.

2009-01-09T18:28:00.002+08:00

there's seriously too much time to study, this time.

1 exam, 1 hour long, 1 essay plus mcqs, 13 lectures worth of coverage. to be perfectly honest, that's very little.

there's quite a few people fretting over this exam, especially when the lecturers keep saying that the results for this exam has been historically entrenched within the nether regions of the marking range.

somehow, 20 odd days to study for 13 hours of lectures is way too much. of course there are stuff that aren't covered in the lectures worth studying for but.. there's still so much time. i've covered my 6 different sets of notes top to bottom, front to back, (almost) inside out, and there's still 7 days left.

i hate studying. argh.

2009-01-04T07:59:00.002+08:00

quite a wretched evening, i must say.

after a buffet session where i intentionally overate, for no real impulse, felt quite bloated walking around to let the food digest. but was still fine, more or less. time would help my food settle down..

then the bus ride. was wondering why the fare was 1 pound, not 90p. was shortly enlightened by the fact that there was a fare hike.. okay.. what to do? suck thumb lor. all was okay until.. the bus said they were diverting.. exactly at the stop before i was to alight.

to those familiar with the map of london, basically the bus went from exhibition road (before royal albert hall), down to cromwell road, down down down until it reached big tesco's where the door finally opened. so much for taking the bus cos the tube was most likely gonna be suspended/delayed. fantastic transport system.

then my oyster card (aka ez-link card) had insufficient value for another bus ride. so what to do? walk back lor. so before that, go buy a drink. bought some fruit juice packet. drank abit.. still felt bloated, so i slowly drank. until the starch still in my stomach apparently decided to absorb the water and start expanding. making me feel fuller than ever before. until i almost couldn't walk.

so went back to hall and stoned until felt slightly better. couldn't really shift position.. any position besides sitting perfectly upright hurted.

moral of story: don't overeat. when shit falls, the toilet bowl overflows.

2009-01-03T21:42:00.002+08:00

seems like my immense gluttony during the ski trip paid off. i weigh 61kg for now (plus shoes)... how long this sixty-something weight will last is a totally different issue altogether.. went to gym to regain my energy levels (the next day, not the next hour. i'm zombified now.) and met like at least 15 ppl there. how come everyone decides 2 go gym on the same day and the same time? hahaha.

well. studying kinda sucks. lol. but it beats scriptwriting.. 48 page documents aren't fun to read.

2008-12-31T21:02:00.002+08:00

just had a d'oh moment.

finally figured how to switch to the next song on my handphone without accessing the media player directly. the shortcut's not written anywhere, and i accidentally triggered it twice (on seperate occasions) without figuring out what i actually did. tried all buttons and configurations, until it just dawned on me.

press and hold the volume change button.

d'oh.

wonderful. now i can skip tracks without even looking at my phone. a little bit belated, since my phone is already in its later years.. it's beginning to fall apart slowly but surely..

2008-12-29T19:02:00.004+08:00

okay back from my ski trip. the trip was really fun, especially after 3pm. why? cos the instructors work until 3pm only. so afterwards it's 'free n easy'. means can go anywhere. which basically means going down the slopes that the instructor was trying to say "you're not pro enough to go there".

some highlights of my trip.

multitasking by taking a video while skiing. the best vid i made got accidentally deleted! wtf..

watching people crash and fall in rather comical fashion.

seeing snowfall on christmas day. which was the only day snow actually fell. the other days was 'relatively' warm.

skiing in gale force winds on christmas day. never felt so miserable in the cold before. especially when stuck on the chairlift up going up balme.

going down a red slope called 'belle place'. even though i fell bout 4 times, the rest of the journey was damn shiok.

nearly causing 2 people to fall off a cliff while they were avoiding me after i formed an obstacle in the middle of a narrow lane after failing an attempted stunt. it's quite funny, seriously.

skiing down from les grand montes to argentiere. the last ski of the trip, just 1 smooth journey, no falling down at all anymore. it's a red slope too.

okay now time for a few more photos. i have a fast (and reliable) connection now, but then abit lazy 2 upload so many photos.. haha. more on facebook.

view from my hostel. nice rite.

the ski slopes at les grand montes!

snowflakes. real snow.

skiing in gale force winds seriously isn't fun.

the finish!

2008-12-24T06:01:00.005+08:00

day 2 of skiing ended. first day (sunday) didn't really count. it was more like a play play session... aching arms and legs... arms from holding the damned "button" chair lifts for dear life up a 45 degree slope... well i can ski quite well so far.. can go down a blue slope looking quite pro! for the uninformed, slopes r graded by colour, beginning with green to blue to red to black. hope i can at least do a red slope without severe injury to myself or any other ppl!

and for the record, yes i'm still a walking hazard. was weaving through clusters of small kids at breakneck speed. and i haven't broke their necks. yet.

well here r some photos i've managed to take!! got a video i took while skiing down a slope, but it's not my cam!

edit: i give up uploading photos. uploading 5 photos took 11mins. then the 2nd batch CRASHED. so there's just a few photos only... which were meant to be the back of the ones i'm uploading here. for those who have uploaded photos on blogger, u'd figure out why i'm doing this..

view from the cable car

cool shot, huh

after the cool shot

30th, 31st n 32nd oac!

imperial!

2008-12-22T04:01:00.003+08:00

currently inside a ski resort in france. in a village called argentiere. the snow's like at least 6 inches thick at the thickest places, but there hasn't been any snow in the 36 hours i've been here.. the temperature's also abit unexpectedly warm. it's prob hovering somewhere near 0 degrees... i was expecting like minus 20 or something around.. hahaha. so it's a pleasant surprise. was sweating so much during skiing that i had to reduce the layers i was wearing!

well skiing is fun. for the very few hours i've been doing it. going straight is easy. turning is only possible (currently) at rather slow speeds.. hahaha. quite good progress. i think... by the end of the week i should be able to ski properly!!

haha. will upload pics.. had a very nice session of camwhoring earlier in the day. my camera isn't with me now so can't upload. but soon......

2008-12-19T05:54:00.001+08:00

yeshhhh... the term's over!!! now to go skiing... and freezing... wahahahahahaha.

2008-12-17T06:18:00.002+08:00

rather sad now. kena slaughtered by the results of 2 of my pracs. the first was the ill-fated prac assessment where we had to answer 20 questions in 20 minutes. at least i was right in the centre of the bell curve. so in general, everyone died together =S the second prac was a more open-ended paper, that one i was better in terms of actual marks, but suckier in terms of position on the histogram... =(

need to pull my marks up somehow.. my coursework is 20% of my this years' grade. quite significant since these 2 shitty pracs is gonna drag me down abit... then my essays r only worth A PATHETIC 5%. write until so nice, get so high marks, still worth so little. bleah.

my grades are determined by absolute grades. not by a bell curve. at least even after these 2 crappy pracs, the overall grades (thus far) is still doing well..

2008-12-14T21:24:00.001+08:00

i have 3 tubs of ice cream sitting in my freezer now. half-priced ben n jerry's ice cream is too good to resist. bought phish food and choc chip cookie dough. the last tub belongs to a previous sale. green and black's organic ice cream. also half price.

2008-12-13T07:17:00.003+08:00

the grass is always greener on the other side..

yea yea yea, everyone says that. but is it really greener? or is it just longer? or thinner? or am i spouting nonsense? okay back to point. everyone says wherever they are is so sucky, this over there is so much better, blah blah. but, when you've been to the opposite side of the fence, u'll realize that it isn't really always so much better. well sometimes it is. but not always. so stop complaining and be happy.

even if the grass on your side is really yellow or brown, there's always a patch of fluorescent shining green grass somewhere on ur side. u just need to find it. and take some po chai pills, too.

2008-12-10T03:06:00.001+08:00

seriously setting my weight at 59kg on the treadmill doesn't really reflect how much energy i'm using. somehow i feel like i spent more than 509 calories today.. damned metabolism =P

2008-12-08T07:06:00.001+08:00

so many photos to sort out and catalog properly. even more songs to sort, delete and tag. i should really not bother bout having proper id3 tags for each song in my playlist. then again, my playlist won't function without all the id3 tags.. bleah.

my music folder stands at 26.8gb. i'm not even halfway through sorting my stuff. bleah.

2008-12-06T21:13:00.002+08:00

my sleep debt is catching up on me in weird ways, when i least expect it.

well, what happens when a person who usually wakes up (automatically, not from the ringing of an alarm clock) at 7.30-8.30 has to go somewhere at noon? of course, rely on his body clock! even if i wake up later, i will have about 2-3 hours to work with..

how wrong a person can be.

slept at 1.30am. woke up to the sounds of my roomie flushing the toilet. was thinking 'wow, he's up unusually early on a weekday'... so since i was awake already, might as well prepare to get up and go.

the clock showed 11.46am

WTF. so i sent an sms to my friend saying that i'm no longer coming for rather obvious reasons. the place is in zone 3 (for those who noe the london tube system), or about 45mins away. the first time i overslept here, when i purposely didn't set my alarm clock since there's so much time to work around.

ah well, my floorball stick is gonna sit in its plastic wrapping for even longer. though if i did go to play, i would be only using it for like 5mins max. after i was recruited to be keeper. yes, the keeper again. i'm already the first (and only) choice keeper for street soccer. okay it can't be called street since the tournament games r played on astroturf, and can't be called soccer cos here it's called football. so it's called street football (sounds weird) or astro(turf) football (weirder!)..

ah well. i can go to the gym instead, then.

2008-12-02T07:21:00.002+08:00

my room suddenly feels so different now. it's so spacious and quiet compared to the last 4 days..

there's now open space on the carpet on my half of the room.. my footwear aren't stacked in 1 haphazard bundle in front of my cupboard anymore..

silence reigns again in my room (i'm using earphones, not blasting the room down)

haha back to (rather) ordinary life again. well, life's moments can't be eternally high. otherwise what would high be relative to?

2008-11-27T06:06:00.002+08:00

watching the champions league match seriously felt like a slightly better league cup match. almost the entire team were youngsters, who regularly feature in the league cup (and only the league cup). lol. but nevermind, the match was exciting, except for the sheer wastage arsenal showed (rather standard leh). lol to those who decided to beat the crowd and leave early. they missed the only goal of the match! was a very fluid goal, though the circumstances of the free kick was... controversial.

i think after the 5 degree weather i'm slightly frozen... falling ill again?!?! my nose is leaking like a fountain. got flu-like symptoms so far. hope i can stop the flu before i'm down with it fully!

2008-11-22T06:59:00.002+08:00

i think i'm getting the beginnings of foot rot. serious. playing 2 football (soccer) games in the rain and not airing my feet for a long while after that is having detrimental (or positive, depending on whose viewpoint u considering) effects on my feet flora.

let's hope my game tmr isn't gonna have rain. hopefully i can trust the forecast. though the forecast is telling me max temp tmr is like 6 degrees. and the temp will fall to -3 at night. (heavy) snow forecasted. wtf?

i should be indoors doing my essay instead of trying to jump at balls in the freezing weather.

2008-11-21T04:50:00.002+08:00

i really hate my practicals. really didn't expect such abysmal standards. the lecturer/prac teacher is totally incomprehensible, the facilitators aren't much help either. the lab worksheet is just a copy of last years' one, and has questions that no one is able to understand, much less answer. everyone has billions of questions n there's not enough people to ask. even worse, when the clock strikes 4pm the facilitators magically disappear.. the resources is insufficient, crappy and sharing is necessary. and everybody knows the eventual outcome..

seriously wondering wad r these people doing.. start getting things straight. if my first few pracs have been so terrible, how bout the future ones?

2008-11-13T06:29:00.004+08:00

feeling so good. slacked the entire of today. for a damn good reason. my lectures were cancelled. why? no one knows. i might figure it out tmr.. spent the morning playing cards, table soccer, table tennis instead of havin lectures! hahaha. life is good.

my parcel has finally arrived! and OMG. i have enough spices inside to open a restaurant. i wanted a few inside. i didn't expect 30 packets. there's enough salt contained in those 30 packets to make my blood pressure rise to a few thousand mmHg. not that i'm dumb enough to try.. though does anyone wanna try??

haha yesterday highlight was arsenal vs wigan! omg the stadium is awesome. even while sitting high up in the stands, i can still see the action clearly! only thing missing is commentary but then, the atmosphere beats any commentary!! gonna watch arsenal in the champions league against dynamo kiev! still can't believe how i managed to ks that!

well. for some pics of the awesome stadium.. (more on facebook!)

2008-11-10T05:11:00.002+08:00

i jus gave up figuring out the weird phrasing on my lab report. the report is all macro-based and is marked using macros. so it's weird. absolutely have no idea how it works. completed my essay before that.. hope it's all ok.. sitting on my bum doing it for 5 hours consecutively (that's excluding the background reading i did earlier..)

to hell with the work la. work is boring. slacking is the way to go~ yesterday had a sports marathon of sorts. street soccer (it's not called soccer here. football.. so street-football?), then floorball and more floorball. really damn tired and bruised after the session. my thumb is bruised. seriously. goalkeeping has it's injuries when u're playing on concrete... so i'm super nua today.. but what to do i need to complete my work.. hahas.

and i seriously wanna change lab partners. my partner is an absolute n00b. nearly got my lab results screwed up thanks to him. sighs. the luck of pairing...

2008-11-06T05:49:00.002+08:00

i am happy.

went for the climbing thingy.. free of charge of course.. either the grading system here is somewhat different, or i suddenly became very pro at climbing. managed up to a 6a+ route! though 6b is still very very impossible. more like 6a routes test ur flexibility. 6b routes test ur fingering techniques.. hahaha. wadeva it is, it feels good. lol.

and my room radiator is finally working! don't need to freeze my butt off anymore~ though it isn't particularly warm, it's better than freezing conditions haha.

got an essay to do again. but heck. it's only an essay. takes a bit of time only.. maybe not a bit but a lot. but heck. it's only a single essay lols.

2008-11-04T18:24:00.002+08:00

sport climbing is so shiok! after not climbing for eons (thanks to some fantastic organisation), feels good to put on a harness and attach a rope to it.. and it's all free thanks to some keep healthy week or something liddat! the session is only 2 hours long, but hey. it's worth it.

gonna try to go for another session in about 2 hours time.. if i can find ppl 2 accompany me.. gonna try up to a 5c route.. 6a possible? completed a 5a route in 1 minute literally.. (was rushing for time).

2008-11-04T07:09:00.003+08:00

don't try to be somebody you're not. don't tell ppl you're this, you're that, when in fact you're the exact opposite...
u can lie to other ppl, but u can't lie to urself..

2008-11-02T06:45:00.002+08:00

never posted anything for abit now.. don't feel like pasting photos on both facebook and my blog. like feels redundant lol. comments on facebook are more fun to read, though when 251 ppl r uploading photos about the same thing.. then the impact diminishes..

well my course is extremely slack (thus far), evident by my really low number of studying hours each week. though i wouln't mind if they spent more time teaching the important things. like how to write an essay and a lab report. totally no information on the format, on the style etc. friday was a writeup on all the data gathered during the previous days' field course (in the freezing AUTUMN which was SNOWING). the session was 7.5 hours long (including how much time u wanna spend eating lunch), and the first 2 hours or so was spent in confusion.. what's the format? where to start? how to input the data in R? error? why error?? still managed to churn out a 9 page report before time's up.. somehow.

and yes. it snowed in london. though it was rather little. first snow since 1934, i think? best right. global warming. rawr.

2008-10-22T06:04:00.002+08:00

cooking is highly entertaining for the wrong reasons.. besides the (almost) deep-fried bacon, i've encountered 2 more rather interesting cases of cooking gone wrong (not by me of course).

stir-frying tomatoes until they turned into tomato paste. (and i thought stir-fry was foolproof)

freezing a head of lettuce. and defrosting it in a microwave. with obvious disastrous consequences (lettuce jelly, anyone?)

and seriously the microwave is imba. u can do anything in a microwave. i witnessed microwaved pasta (the dried kind, not the instant/readymade ones!).

2008-10-20T06:47:00.002+08:00

ugh. must remember to stretch after physical exercises. especially sports that involve a lot of sprinting. woke up n almost couldn't walk. my fitness level really drops rather fast. i hope my weight doesn't take an inverse trend. i should really find a weighing scale. need to see wad 2 weeks have done to my weight.

2008-10-18T06:58:00.002+08:00

rather sick and tired to blog, after racking my brains the hardest in almost 3 years to come up with essay material. especially when u realise that the stuff i've been thinking about was rather irrelevant after i understood the actual nature of the question..

well, that beats getting screwed over by failing due to spectacularly writing the wrong topic. like my ungraded.. hahaha.

2008-10-15T04:15:00.003+08:00

wow. i got my first proper work to do. an essay. omfg. of all things. but it's rather expected. though highly unpleasant...

anyway i'm rather pleased with myself that i went to do fulltime tuition (couldn't really call it fulltime though) instead of finding a part-time job.. i dun have the huge inertia when going back to studies..

and i realized that some ppl really can't cook. i almost witnessed some guy deep frying bacon in a saucepan.

2008-10-12T17:05:00.001+08:00

wow.. running in hyde park n kensington gardens at 8am in the morning is good stuff. freezing, then warm, then numb. wanted 2 run 2 rounds around it. but my legs felt like wood midway thru the run..

2008-10-11T16:50:00.003+08:00

imma bout 2 go 4 some walk around london led by the seniors.. but before i do, i've 1 important announcement to make.

my toilet paper has a smoother texture than the cheapo facial tissues i bought.

2008-10-08T06:49:00.002+08:00

haha okay some updates.. my life here damn exciting okay? i'm doing really alot of damn weird things..

first off (most recently n painfully in memory) grocery shopping is painful n tiring. buying the cheapest stuff is good, cept that the cheapest stuff come in huge quantities.. transportation by human isn't the best idea esp when the place is like 20mins plus walk away!! my back is about 2 break liaoz. my shoulders wanna fall off too. well at least i got the super bulky duvet liaoz.. now i can sleep in tshirt n shorts! rather than 4 layers of clothes!! okay tonite will be the test run.. and my room heater is still faulty. kns.

well other cool stuff going on, is that i've begun 2 cook for my meals liaoz (thats y so much groceries).. ytd cooked a quite shiok meal for 5 ppl, then 4, then 3.5... (was crappy la, wad happened).. in the end too much food bleah. nvm la leftover rice i go make some rubbish fried rice with random ingredients in my fridge for my dinner 2dae~ hahaha. cooking beats eating my wonderful giant loaf of bread.

today oso had a fresher's fair.. where all the clubs n societies (aka ccas) were showcased. signed up for tonnes of them. most for some offers (like cheaper stuff..), some with no intention 2 actually join it (aka sign up anyhow). will pick out a few, maybe 1 or 2, which i will participate in, obviously those without conflicting schedules hahaha..

hai.. i have more i wanted 2 blog about. but goldfish memory is affecting me.. hahas. if i can rmb i will blog. if not, then i won't blog. duh. lol.

2008-10-05T15:14:00.002+08:00

haha okay i've finally settled down more or less in my hall, had enough sleep n things r more or less in order! well now to blog bout my rather exciting life thus far (lol..)

well from the airport, there were a couple of friends sending me off, but i was super chaotic. way
too many ppl flying off on the same flight ensures that there is a legion of ppl 2 wade through to find anyone. so sorry to those whom i didn't say bye to before i entered the gates!! bleah way too chaotic la.

anyway bout the flight (it's an a380, yes), the plane was big (very), which has a couple of good things going for it. the takeoff n landing was rather smooth, the in-flight turbulence was minimal, the soundproofing was good too.. the only negative part bout the flight was that my in-flight entertainment system kinda crashed.. well i thought i was damn sway but apparently i'm not the only one =)

well, my room: it's a twin ensuite room (aka built in toilet), quite spacious n new-looking. only problem is that i'm literally beside all the partying area --> noise during sleeping/studying haha. well my roommate is this french guy, who's in his 4th year doing his masters, but 1st year at imperial. so stop asking what is a 4th year guy doing in a fresher's hall.. well communication is not the easiest; his english is hard to understand as it's not his maiden tongue, but we get along well so far. thankfully he doesn't seem to be the kind of crazy party animal..

other things arh. went to walk around the area led by seniors, to familiarize with the surroundings n get some essentials. 1 of the most essential items, the duvet, was knn sold out! n i'm lacking a pillow too (comes with a duvet so i'm not buying a seperate one).. so now i'm making do with a funky stack of towels as my pillow n the duvet cover, lacking the actual duvet, as my duvet. yes it's damn cold. that's why i wear 4 layers to sleep.. blah.

can talk alot more. but it'll make this post super super long. pics will be uploaded when i get the mood to. haha. off to my free breakfast (every penny, not cent liao, counts..)

2008-10-03T17:57:00.002+08:00

leaving in less than 6 hours.. doing the final checks..

ensuring i never left anything important behind.

finding locks that can fit the ridiculously small hole in the zipper.

figuring out how to lock up the cargo bag (it can't be locked conventionally. only 1 zip..)

realizing that i had a scissors residing in my handcarry bag n promptly taking it out.

my room is rather barren now.. almost everything has been taken out or thrown away. after i pack my laptop inside my handcarry bag, well, it'll be almost barren..

2008-10-02T23:11:00.002+08:00

i wanna modify my blog template. but the change i intend to make is quite significant. n i dunno where 2 start from. nv touched my scripting for too long.. forgot how i coded most of the portions..

flying off tmr.. rawr hope i dun forget anything important. still wondering whether my laptop can fit inside the limited space in my laptop bag now.. if not i'm gonna be damn sian lol.

2008-09-29T22:36:00.002+08:00

wow i conducted the final lessons for half my tutees today.. quite sad la, since all of them (today only) r sitting for their final exams (o and a lvls) in like 3-4 weeks. it would be good to stick with them until the end, but sadly it's rather impossible, unless my sem starts much later or the exams are brought forward. i support the latter! haha.

at least all of them have shown some improvement, especially in the understanding of their weaker topics. sometimes i wonder how they fumbled through 2 years with such holey knowledge, until i realized i did that too >,< the other thing that puzzles me is that they never seemed to ask their teachers any questions (out of school time, which some of my classmates were rather fond of).. do they rely on themselves so much?

well, which brings me to the idea that tuition is rather important for them. a place to express all their queries and doubts, and also to figure out the proper ways to answer questions.. i suppose they could have asked their teachers instead of me, but i think that they don't do so as some teachers really cannot make it.. (haha i noe a few too.)

well my tutees wrote me a farewell note! so interesting! n it comes with a super lame wordhunt puzzle too >,<

2008-09-27T00:25:00.002+08:00

okay. i haven't been posting for rather long.. (yes this place is still alive..) well, i've been doing alot of stuff recently, i have alot of things 2 blog bout. but jus too lazy 2 blog bout them. rather crappy reason rite.

well anyways, recently i've been running around doing quite many different things, namely getting all my stuff ready to fly (packing n the necessary admin stuff), meeting friends and ceasing all my tuition.. keeps me occupied for a rather large portion of my time..

for the meetings, i've met with many different groups of friends, from the good old (young actually) times in secondary school to the recent (in both ways) events; aka my army buddies.. the gatherings were all based around eating.. i think i may actually begin to put on some weight for the 1st time in over a year! hawker food, chilli crab, jap buffet, all these stuff r rather.. high in calorific value?

as my short-lived career as a budding (more like bloodsucking) tutor draws to a close, i can't help but think back on all the stuff i've done. explaining bimolecular nucleophilic substitution at least 10 times to the same person. trying to smoke my way through vectors, especially vector equations of a plane. explaining recurrence relationships when i dun really noe wad i'm talking about. drawing free body diagrams with at least 5 forces. yeah, the list goes on..

well i hoped that i had a positive influence on my tutees.. the only one which i have access to his results - he improved from a failure grade to an a1! though i'm not around to see how well he does in his end-of-year exams (all up 2 veggie liao), i believe i have done a good job.. some r jus too dense or have their priorities misplaced.. hoping they 'wake up' before it's too late.. though it sucks to abandon them jus b4 their all-important exams (most of them), it can't be helped in this case, rite?

will try to be less lazy n blog more often. lol.

2008-09-08T22:22:00.004+08:00

stuff i wanna do:
night cycling
rock climbing
kayaking
bowling
go gym (lol...)

things i wanna eat:
chilli crab
kuishin-bo buffet
oyster omelette
chendol (somehow i got so many chances to, but never gotten round to eating this)

2008-08-20T22:57:00.002+08:00

first time i attempted having 3 tuition sessions on a single day.. that's 6 hours of mental taxing... within a 9 hour block, having sufficient travelling time so i won't run round like a headless chicken..

well the outcome was rather successful; was able to maintain concentration levels throughout, though at the end of it all, i was rather spent.

i have another triple tuition day coming up.. (what, again??).. however it's easier as the level is lower (sec sch as opposed to jc).. though i need to ensure rescheduling doesn't turn it into a quadruple tuition day!!!

2008-08-18T21:40:00.002+08:00

has anyone noticed that posters of the most photographed man in singapore r slowly disappearing? at the exits of buses, the piece of paper stuck on with scotch-tape is gone.. leaving the sticky residue when u peel it off..

2008-08-12T23:25:00.002+08:00

well, at least i figured out why some of my tutees r in 'panic mode'.. or close to it.. sec 4 prelims starts like next week? (some even earlier).. i better find out when jc prelims start..

this year, the calendar's abit odd; the september hols start in august (i was so used 2 it being the 2nd week of september); everything's pushed forward.. well now that i've synchronized myself to all these, i can more effectively plan out wad 2 do.. (and HOW to drop my 2 j1 tutees!)

well another bout of randomness: for some reason, the raised divider seperating bus bays from the main road have been demolished n mowed down to be the same level as the road.. safety perhaps? so ppl dun whack the kerb? or so noob bus drivers dun whack their own buses? anyways while they were redoing the roads, i noticed something really interesting..

why r bus bays laid with concrete while the roads r laid with tar?? is there a significant difference?

2008-08-07T22:29:00.002+08:00

now for a bout of randomness: when i sit on buses, i will slouch on sbs transit buses but will sit really straight on smrt buses.. maybe it's the way the seats r designed.. the sbs seats make u 'feel' like slouching.. they're plush and rather slippery, while the smrt seats r fabric n rather rigid.. kinda hard to slouch on them (actually possible but more uncomfortable).. even though smrt seats appear to have less leg-room, i have no issues with them, but feel sbs seats r too close (due to slouching of course)... though i feel the height of sbs seats r abit low.. which makes for a greater incentive to slouch so ur legs r positioned more comfortably?

2008-07-29T23:56:00.002+08:00

woohoo. i can stop going to cd shops n looking for the album i've been searching since several years ago.. though i know that not a single shop stockpiles it, i jus look for it hoping somehow they decide to import it.. of course without much success...

well until now.. i jus got it.. thanks weihong!!! yeah.. to hell with the cd shops now.. i've no need 2 go anymore! =p

2008-07-23T22:41:00.002+08:00

was extremely bored on the bus so i thought of this...
the following is titled "why the world is getting selfish" (WARNING highly offensive to some)

according to the principles of evolution, the individuals with the greatest reproductive fitness will live to pass on their genes to the next generation; creating a 'survival of the fittest', where organisms most suited to the environment will survive and live behind descendants.

this is true for almost all species. however, humans, instead of changing to suit the environment, changes the environment to suit themselves. the environment created will obviously be most suited to humans; other species have to adapt or perish. does this mean that humans will stop evolving? maybe yes, maybe no. only time will tell. however, according to theory which i will proceed to explain, humans will evolve to become a much for selfish, individualistic species...

since environmental pressures have been removed or modified, humans will have to devise their own ways to reduce their numbers, otherwise the exponential growth of the human population will trigger an ecological collapse and the subsequent extinction of the species.. thus there are wars and human-induced natural disasters to do the dirty work.. these 2 eliminate people rather blindly; no one is immune to death, and elimination from the gene pool, from such calamities. however, these don't occur on a daily basis.. there has to be other ways to eliminate excess.

so how do single individuals kill themselves off? it's no easy task; people will try all means to survive whatever predicament they are caught in. so who dies? it's the ones who have the highest numbers of encounters with such predicaments, obviously. probability states that the chance of death is higher if you encounter a lot of life threatening situations, compared to one or two.

so who fits the bill? the most altruistic individuals, according to my reasoning. they will occupy high-risk professions, and will risk life and limb to save people not related by blood. after many harmless incidents, an accident with loss of life is bound to happen sooner or later. not only the unfortunate (random) individual, but the rescuer, or the altruistic person, is liable to perish. thus he eliminates himself (or herself) from the gene pool. as a result, the frequency of genes that determine how 'altruistic' a person is decreases.

in a population of over 6 billion people (and counting), how is 1 or 2 deaths going to affect anything? evolution doesn't happen overnight; it happens over many generations. and it is over many generations that the cumulative effect of such deaths have an impact, reducing the overall frequency of the 'altruistic' genes, and thus the world becomes a more selfish place.

this 'selfish' progression will actually happen faster than predicted just from the elimination of those people in question. besides lowering their reproductive fitness by putting themselves into high-risk situations, these 'heroic' people actually improve others' reproductive fitness by saving them from the risky predicaments they were caught in. so the effect is twofold; the 'altruistic' genes are diluted due to their deaths, and also due to the greater survivability of others. compared to the 'daring' or 'stupid' people who eliminate themselves due to 'daring' or 'stupid' acts (base jumping as an example of daring acts that could easily go wrong), these people in question don't increase the reproductive fitness of others. they just decrease their own.

in conclusion, over a span of many generations, the human population will become a more selfish place as the 'altruistic' genes slowly get eliminated. less altruistic individuals will dominate, and their interest in self-survivability will ensure their survival. this effect may take many millenia before it becomes evident, but then again, no one will live so long to actually see any significant change... it's more likely that the human race gets wiped out by some other act like global warming, a nuclear winter or some supervolcano erupting and changing the world climate thus triggering an ice age. whatever makes you happy.

2008-07-15T21:58:00.002+08:00

singapore's public transport system is world-class. or so they say. somehow i beg to differ. anyone who takes bus service number 5 regularly will attest to that.

i regularly wait for 10-15 mins for number 5 to arrive.. waiting time (pm off peak) is 16-19 mins. so i'm probably damn sway la. exactly 7 days ago, the bus came so late that i had to take a taxi to make sure i was on time (1st tuition lesson ma..) best. now 7 days later, going home takes the cake.

well i waited for 20+ mins before i got damn fed up waiting. watched FIVE bus 23 go past, four 21, three 8 and 15, and a bunch of others. so i actually used the iris service. for the first time in my life. this is wad the message wrote (word for word):

Bus stop 75051,Svc 5,Next bus:35 mins,Subsequent bus:48mins.For T&Cs, pls check SBS Transit website. 5 cts(postpaid)/10cts(prepaid).

THIRTY FIVE MINUTES. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!

and i orredi waited for 20 mins. that makes 55 mins, abit short of an entire hour. so i walked home. took me 25 mins. and if you're wondering if the bus was 'just' arriving as the msg was sent, the answer is no. if i msged iris when i first came to the bus stop, the msg would look like this:

Bus stop 75051,Svc 5,Next bus:55 mins,Subsequent bus:68mins.For T&Cs, pls check SBS Transit website. 5 cts(postpaid)/10cts(prepaid).
so much for our world class transport system. it's so good, that more erp gantries were built to ease traffic congestion. so effective were the new gantries and price hikes, that a supposed additional 24000 trips were taken on public transport.

i don't wanna comment anymore on the transport policy. later i find strange people knocking on my door. but yeah. i love the 55 mins waiting time.

2008-07-10T11:55:00.002+08:00

lately i've been going on autopilot quite often.. meaning i do things without much conscious though put into my actions.. this is usually the case when i'm taking public transport.. after all if you take certain fixed routes, the tendency is to follow these fixed patterns.. when i need to vary these patterns, that's where the problem occurs.

for almost all mrt stations, i only take the trains 1-way from that station in question. there is seldom a need to go the opposite way. i will usually walk to the side of the platform i'm used to n board the train when it comes.. all without much conscious thought put into it. when i need to take the train the opposite way, if i'm still on autopilot, i'm gonna make a nice roundabout.. i would only realize i'm on the wrong train about 5 seconds after the door closes.. happened a few times liao.

well going on autopilot is good sometimes; u can concentrate on other things that r on ur mind. when u've a certain routine, there's not much room for variance, hence the 'standard patterns'. i try to limit this autopilot mode to taking public transport.. gives me quite a bit of room for thinking.. however i've got to stop autopiloting whenever i walk from point-to-point.. i kinda miss out alot of stuff on the way..

2008-07-06T18:47:00.002+08:00

i seriously despise those self-righteous people. they think they're always right, and will criticize every little mistake that others' make, overlooking their own obvious flaws. everybody must bow down to their every request, and their thinking is so closed that they can't see the viewpoints of others.

how did these arrogant, narcissistic people come into existence? it's a wonder how they continue to live with their heads still on their shoulders, offending everyone in their path. people's egos were not made equal, but usually ego comes with something to be egoistic about. sometimes, it's hard to find out why such idiots have colossal egos.

wake up. the world doesn't revolve around u. if u were to disappear from the world now, no one's gonna mourn for your loss. you're just a waste of the earth's valuable resources.

2008-07-04T14:46:00.002+08:00

i think my desktop is almost truly dead liao. today microsoft excel hung upon loading. even trying to open the display properties takes like 10 seconds.. i vast 'improvement' from the 0.x seconds previously (which was like several months i think). desktop is about 4 years plus old.. kinda expected. defragmenting the hard disk isn't helping much too.. nothing 2 defrag left.. format comp maybe.. but AGAIN? nvm let it die gracefully.. if it could be called such..

well, i gotta get used 2 my laptop now.. it's so much faster lor. my antivirus is scanning in the background n i'm not lagging.. that's power la. now in the process of slowly transferring all important files over to my laptop.. hoping to make my stuff inside my laptop super organized n clutter-free. which probably explains why a lot of stuff preloaded inside vista have been annihilated..

i need to get a good, cheap laser mouse too. my "50% off" lobang is only available for optical and bluetooth mice.. a bluetooth laser mouse costs like 160.. after 50% off is still double the price of the cheapest laser mouse in the market.. this sucks big time. haha.

anyway laptop speakers r rubbish. the sound comes out rather scratchy.. have to use tune my equalizer to weird settings to get a 'nice' sound.. wad 2 do~

2008-06-17T00:21:00.003+08:00

been meddling with my laptop quite abit.. (though i'm on my desktop now..) when the laptop comes pre-installed with a bunch of stuff, the configuration is usually rather sucky.. so i've went to remodel the laptop more to my liking..

went to get the latest vista updates, then disabled almost all the in-built security features. to those who've used vista, u must realize windows defender is a pain. yes, no unauthorized programs will manage to gain access, but it's way too annoying. the windows security features were designed for the computer-illiterate, so they're mostly on the excessive side for ppl who actually noe wad they're doing.

got avg-free antivirus.. since the 'free' version of my antivirus is only xp-compatible.. well, this is free too. and i hope it serves its purpose well..

shifted around and deleted a whole bunch of stuff.. the vista start menu is super cluttered with rubbish.. cleared out most of them. half the shortcuts link back to the control panel.. why bother having them when u noe where 2 find them?

disabled the irrelevant programs that cause computer startup to lag more than necessary. plus they're taking up space as ugly icons on my uncluttered taskbar. i've even removed the floating windows sidebar.. it's useless..

installed software that's not under the monopoly of the maker of my operating system. mozilla firefox n winamp r my choices for the internet browser n mp3 player respectively.. any regarding firefox.. i use ie7 on my desktop (xp) cos firefox fonts looks weird on the desktop. firefox fonts r ok on my laptop so i'll rather use it.

could someone donate me a laser mouse for my laptop? i'm feeling rather poor.. optical mice require fat n bulky micepads. sometimes u jus dun wanna use the touchpad to navigate round..

2008-06-14T23:43:00.003+08:00

well, this is the end of a rather highly eventful week for me.. kinda big stuff happened i suppose.. of equivalent magnitude to passing my driving test.. hahaha.

first i finally cleared my ippt.. got a silver. was i above or below expectations? no idea. but this time i was finally on the correct side of the cutoff margin.. my 2.4km timing 1 second slower would have been a pass instead of silver.. which means a loss of a hundred bucks.. gold is like how impossible now..

well at least i realized my fitness is only confined to endurance.. time to go gym more often! anyone??

well today.. bought my wonderful laptop. after much consideration (and going on 2 recces to figure out stuff), i got an ASUS F6S.. costed me just over 2k, including extending the warranty to 3 years.. so much that my nets card actually bounced.. crossed over the daily 2k limit.. lucky i brought enough cash to cover the extra.. (31 bucks only la..)

now let me proclaim my computer specifications.. it's good stuff okay?
ASUS F6S (F6S21PYG25DPM) - 13.3 inch laptop
-Intel Core2 Duo Processor Penryn T8100 (2.1GHz, 800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache)
-Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N 4965ABGN network connection 802.11a/b/g/n
-Windows Vista Home Premium
-nVidia Geforce 9300M GS with 256MB dedicated VRAM
-13.3" WXGA LCD
-3GB DDR2 RAM with 1GB Turbo Memory
-250GB 5400rpm SATA HDD
-DVD Super-Multi Double Layer Drive
-Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
-TPM-Trusted Platform Module for Hardware & Software Encryption Security
-1.3 Megapixel Web-camera
-8-in-1 Card Reader
-Biometric Fingerprint Reader
-Magnesium Alloy casing (partially)
-1.95kg!

now i'm gonna become a hermit n let me start saving some money..

2008-06-02T22:48:00.002+08:00

sundown marathon completed.. this will be my last marathon i will run.. the experience was too bad and painful, especially when i knew what was in store for me...

some things that happened during the race:

10.5km: first cramping occured. how come i started to cramp just 1 hour into the marathon? i have no idea.. anyway it went downhill from here.. as expected.

20km: after the turning point, approaching the first of the dreaded overhead bridges, was a very sloppily-manned water point.. consisting of 1 guy getting mobbed by over 10 thirsty runners.. he was mumbling something about 'don't worry everyone will get a drink' or something along that line.. but i couldn't be bothered 2 wait.. saw a half-empty bottle (1.5 litre) of water n grabbed it. well, i could finally quench my thirst properly..

24km: the cramping is getting unbearable.. with no water point in sight, i'm forced to down a powergel (i brought 6) to stave off the cramping.. no choice but to run without water until the next water point..

25km: crossed the second bridge, finally hit the water point. feeling wiser from the previous water point, i grabbed a half-full bottle of water and continued. and promptly missed the 100plus drinks hidden behind the mob of runners. that sucked big time.. the stretch ahead was torturous, to say the least.. endless uphills n downhills aren't runner-friendly.

27km: just before reaching bedok reservoir, i finally hit the point where stretching does little to relieve cramping.. u stretch 1 muscle, another muscle cramps.. before this only my lower leg was cramping.. now my hamstrings decided to join in the fun..

28km: i'm now running with a lot of stretching of cramped muscles in between. my pace is so slow, ppl who've been walking for long stretches r actually keeping pace with me. this is bad..

32km: i've finally hit the point of no-return; i cannot sustain a running pace any longer. forced to walk for the last 10km. since i've been in a highly bad mood for the last 10km, i was brisk walking in order to end this wretched race asap..

42km: a few hundred metres before i hit the finish line, it started to rain..

42.195km: finally completed this bloody race in 5 hours 49 minutes. a terrible time, to say the least. but it's finally over...

the very bad points of the race.. got so much for me to complain about, unfortunately.

-the route is terrible. 4 overhead bridges kills almost everyone. especially when 1 of them is a staircase-type instead of a ramp-type. everyone i saw was walking up that bridge. not forgetting the numerous slopes which feels like some cross-country run instead of a marathon.

-insufficient water points. 3km apart is really too far. between water points, u really feel like dying of thirst. plus the water points were small and poorly manned.. the cups they filled weren't even filled fully!

-very narrow route. at the later parts, when ppl begin to walk, half the route is taken up. only one person can overtake at a single time.. when u're trying to keep a constant pace a lagger trying to overtake a greater lagger breaks up ur momentum..

-wanted to run the entire time, without walking at all. cramping at 10.5km threw a monkey wrench into my plans. i was expecting to cramp at something like 30km... but after 25km, i realized i would have saved energy by walking instead of running-stopping, since my speed was actually comparable to walking speed..

-the route felt like 52km instead of 42km. from the 32km mark, i estimated (quite accurately) that i was walking for 2 hours, judging from my mp3 playlist. that gives an average speed of 5km an hour. feels wrong? yes. since i was brisk walking. i'm quite sure i was walking at 6-7km an hour..

-looking at the times i passed the checkpoints, i took a staggering 1 hour 40 minutes to run from 20km-28km??? that's like less than 5km an hour?!?!

well, for all the bad parts there's at least a few good stuff here n there..

-got quite a few ppl from the public giving support. the most impressive one was the family (is it?) who set up their own water point at bout 33km.. so kind of them! iced water too, better than the warm water served at the water points!

-talking about support, at east coast park near the food centre, there was this joker trying to sell water to the runners. or at least i thought it was water. that person was asking the runner in front of me to buy a bottle of something for.. 5 bucks. talk about profiteering.. a pathetic attempt too. u think runners would carry money and stop to buy from u??

-the singlet is very good quality. especially in comparison to the stanchart one. the female version is very well designed, white front and blue back. hard to explain. go look for one see for urself.

still recovering from the muscle aches all over my body.. somehow, somehow, i woke up with a stiff neck. bad sleeping posture or delayed muscle fatigue?

2008-05-28T23:37:00.002+08:00

well. i passed my driving test. first try too. not bad, since during the test i was actually expecting to fail.. it doesn't help that ur both legs r trembling like crazy (was i that nervous?), leading to extremely bad clutch n acceleration control.. but somehow i made it..

highlights (or the low points) of my test -
1: instructor "when i hit the dashboard means emergency brake"... 10 seconds after i move off he slams the dashboard.. well. that was fast.
2: parallel parking.. due to an extremely wobbly left leg, i couldn't control my speed too well.. ended up reversing into the 2 poles behind me.. somehow they didn't fall over.. so i got 4 points instead of 20..
3: stalled my car outside the circuit. reason being my leg was shaking too much again, over-released the clutch. fortunately i managed 2 restart quickly so was saved there..
4: no u-turn? wtf? die le.. that means i confirm fail liao.. in the end i was awarded a pass.. false scare there.

well some records i can recall of my 'fantastic' experience..
poles toppled: 6 (all from parallel parking)
poles touched: 6 (2 from my test somemore!)
times instructor jammed brakes: 3 (cos my mind was somewhere in space)
accidents almost caused: 1 (hehe)
accidents averted by rapid braking: 3 (i noticed myself!)
immediate failures i've witnessed: at least 6
times stalled cos leg was tired: 5
times stalled cos release clutch too fast: at least 50
times stalled on slope: at least 10
highest speed attained: 75km/h
highest speed while taking a bend: 40km/h (freaked my instructor out badly)

i can probably think of more ridiculous stuff, but that's bout it for now. how do i remember all these random weird stuff? dun ask me..

2008-05-18T22:29:00.002+08:00

the search for the perfect breathmint

breathmints r important.. for obvious reasons.. lately i've been trying several different brands to see which is better.. price doesn't really matter since 1 pack lasts me well over a month..

so the contenders are..
1: clorets (sugar free)
2: clorets (with sugar)
3: eclipse
4: tic-tac
5: impact
6: fisherman's friend
7: frozz
8: smint
if there are others, i probably took them out of consideration..

so the judging is out..
1: clorets (sugar free): the mints r ridiculously small but have a nice kick. at least the packaging is small. however the mints start melting in the casing very fast (2-3 weeks) and can't be removed once that happens.. so i never finished one whole packet yet.
2: clorets (with sugar): i bought the orange flavoured one. tastes like an expensive tic-tac with calories. nuff said.
3: eclipse: big n good tasting, but somehow makes me feel thirsty after consuming it...
4: tic-tac: no kick, plus doesn't feel like it's gonna improve ur breath. no taste, too. can't expect much from half a calorie..
5: impact: looks too gay.
6: fisherman's friend: the packaging doesn't allow for it to be kept for long periods.. which is quite important for me..
7: frozz: the barley mint flavour tastes like crap. i dunno why i picked that flavour.
8: smint: haven't bought it yet in recent history.. though i remember that it melts quite fast too.
well after going through so many brands.. somehow all of them got some problem or another.. however so far eclipse is the best (unless smint is better)... any better suggestions out there?

2008-05-08T22:40:00.002+08:00

finally decided to login to blogger.. i got quite a lot of things to say but i'm lazy 2 talk bout them.. hahaha.

i'm in a very interesting situation now.. due to the fact that i'm giving tuition, i'm constantly refreshing my knowledge learned in sec sch/jc (more of the latter actually). i'm teaching mostly chemistry, with some physics n maths too, but no biology. and to think i used to specialize in bio, and i'm gonna study that, too.

i could probably vomit out almost every single detail of jc chemistry there is to know about, but i can't say the same for bio now.. i've barely came into contact with bio during tuition except for a brief discussion on dihybrid variation.. i'm not mentioning anything bout physics n maths as well.. i'm not so good with them/hate them to various extents..

as a tuition teacher it is quite important to stay at least a step ahead of the tutee, to think in advance or to solve problems faster (and correctly too).. for physics n maths i can manage to stay 1-2 steps.. chem i think i can now stay like 10 steps ahead of my tutees.. this is wad happens when i'm exposed to too much chem.. hahaha.

from my room i can see ppl studying.. practically every single waking moment is spent with their faces plastered all over their books n notes.. how can they survive this lifestyle?? do they do this due to family pressure? peer pressure? stress placed on oneself?? can't understand how they survive like this practically for eternity..

2008-04-14T20:21:00.004+08:00

i'm officially 21. had a big bash to celebrate my turning-21 on my very last day of being 20...

got a few things i wanna say, but i think that they're not highly relevant n most ppl wun pay attention anyway. so i'll get straight to the point n upload pics (spent 2+ hours organizing them!!)

my chalet!

the caterer (and their son!)

the food! (looks good, huh)

greedy ppl rushing for food

don't be shy la

lively atmosphere outside the chalet

lively atmosphere inside the chalet

serious in concentration (look at the 'ghost hand')

my cake!

NPCC mates!

my JC class!

my army buddies!

my sec sch classmates!

the OAC ppl!

my JC class again

got more photos.. will upload them on facebook once facebook decides to lag less.. uploading here is quite a chore actually...

2008-04-07T00:17:00.003+08:00

quite a lot of things to prepare for my chalet.. there's a bunch of things that haven't been settled yet.. some of it require help from others.. but who will be available to lend a hand in all this?

some needs:
-songs to play during the entire event, both english n chinese (bring ur mp3s!)
-someone to manage the playlist (someone can aid me with this??)
-forms of entertainment/performances (any volunteers/ideas??)
-how to provide enough chairs/tables
-set up an anti-mosquito system
-what kinds of junk food should i supply besides the buffet
-some way to transport all the above-mentioned from my home to the chalet

most of the other problems, like the guest list, food n drinks, things i should prepare... sure got more things that'll crop up sometime soon. when that happens then i'll deal with it =)

any helpers/volunteers for those above-mentioned problems?

2008-03-29T01:00:00.002+08:00

well. there's been a rather lot of interesting things happening recently.. none of them have significant impacts but well... they r interesting.

firstly i would like to make the statement that my most hated subject is physics. for good reason too. there's too much things to consider just to make even a simple calculation. okay, i'm dealing with questions far above the standard expected for most, but this isn't supposed to be the case. since when did tutorials become so difficult. n its only regarding forces.. which is supposed to be a foundation topic! try explaining why the weight n the normal reaction force aren't newton's 3rd law pairs.. >,<

second, i have enough funky experiences while learning driving. learning from a private instructor, going into the circuit is way different. firstly, 99% of the time is spent in gear 1 (or reverse, for that matter). it's extremely tiring on the left foot.. after driving 1 leg will really be nua... anyway while i was leaving the circuit.. i had to see a car (taking test) whack down 1 of the poles for parallel parking.. that guy got 1 foot in the grave with that mistake. after leaving the circuit, i saw a car (same one? somehow i think so) somehow stopped squarely within the yellow box. okay that junction is a killer. but shouldn't that driver be smart enough to noe that?? ah well. learn from the mistakes of others.

third.. wad's with the weather.. while learning driving, i hear over the news that hailstones decided descend over parts of singapore.. too bad i was too far to witness it. must have been an interesting sight.. though potentially hazardous. shortly after, i saw a tree split vertically into 2.. the authorities were clearing the mess when i passed by... was the split caused by lightning? funny, cos i didn't hear a single thunderclap.. weird weather.

anything more exciting is gonna happen anytime soon?

2008-03-24T01:25:00.003+08:00

now for a really crappy post. it has utterly no meaning at all, expect for me to vent some stupid frustration. although it's abit funny.

i decided to update my wonderful 128mb aigo mp3 player with new songs after listening to the same ones for a few hundred kilometres while running. it's a crappy player, but it'll do cos it's the most lightweight music player i own.. lol.

got kinda demoralized the moment i heard the first song on my playlist. subsequent songs didn't really help, too. i realized i kinda put all the wrong songs inside..
1st song: the corrs - breathless. kinda obvious why this is a bad song. 1st song somemore..
2nd song: yellowcard - breathing. another reference! well hearing bout breathing in a song.. kinda disrupts ur own breathing rhythm..
4th song (3rd song not relevant): linkin park - runaway. dun remind me i'm running, please. it quite sucks to be reminded.
6th song: yellowcard (again!) - only one. lyrics go.. 'here i go, SCREAM my LUNGS out...' please cut the references to anything with the circulatory system... i'm extremely fatigued n u're telling me to scream my lungs out?!?

okay.. those were the songs i heard.. then i checked my playlist.. luckily i never got so far to hear the other songs..
other song 1: fall out boy - the music or the misery. when the music stops (batt flat), the misery begins. seriously.
other song 2: no doubt - running. yes yes, enough with the references... >,<

within a pathetic 128mb, 100 minutes of music, i can select 6 songs from over a thousand which have negative references to running. fantastic. i'm gonna change my playlist.. now.

2008-03-21T21:19:00.002+08:00

suddenly i jus remembered i got 3 hotmail accounts. lately i've been using only my gmail account. clean forgot they existed.

anyway, the accounts r more or less dead, jus collecting junk mail only. i'm probably gonna terminate 2 of them, leaving the last one (the one named after a certain 'fugitive') active for junk purposes.. anyway hotmail is so laggy.. gmail is so much better.. inferface-wise and lag-wise..

lol i'm becoming more and more anti-microsoft. i would use mozilla firefox, but somehow the fonts (esp facebook) look weird on firefox. they're not smoothed.. linux, as an OS anyone??

2008-03-20T23:47:00.002+08:00

wow. i didn't noe blink was such a popular book. well, the stuff inside is quite interesting, plus it's been around for 3 years, so it has attracted quite an audience.. anyway i'm gonna focus on attempting to read facial expressions now.. hope i can actually detect the small but significant changes the book mentions.. i should raid the library more often..

72 days till sundown. after realizing that i dun have a lot of time left, i'm training much harder than before.. as long as i'm sufficiently rested plus the weather permits, i'll go train. i hope i dun over-train and burn out so fast.. cos today while walking back from giving tuition my right ankle started...... aching? it was the worn-out feeling. jialat?

anyways my tuition is very exciting. i dunno wad my tutee will throw at me. ask me maths this time. last week ask me chem. previous week ask me physics. he ask me gp then can complete all the subjects liaoz.. -_- also gives me a higher chance 2 be caught unprepared.. so far i've recovered from all the initial shocks given to me.. i think? i hope i can continue this success.

2008-03-18T16:03:00.002+08:00

for the last few weeks (yes, weeks), i've been wanting to go to the library. not willing to make a trip just to go there or to make a detour, i only had a few chances to actually step foot into the library. the most common way was if i had to travel near the library, to transfer on public transport, making a quick trip. however this plan is highly flawed: i will make up my mind to go to the library, then forget about it while i'm in the vicinity, then remember (with cursing n swearing) once i leave the area. well, for once i actually remembered.

borrowed 2 books which i've scouted out from bookstores.. (my purpose in visiting bookstores is not to purchase anything; its to look at potential books to borrow) blink by malcolm gladwell and a spot of bother by mark haddon.. quite fortunate to be able to find them in the library, after a few previous failed attempts (dating up to months back)..

jus started reading blink abit.. its about first impressions, n how accurate they really are. in 1 of their analyses, they were talking about 4 emotive states that will cause the ultimate downfall of something (in this case they were talking bout marriage). the results and explanation of them were quite convincing, but i'm surprised at how they tend to go unnoticed.. by analyzing these 4 emotive states, i kinda realized it quite coincides with how i view ppl, giving me a basis behind my hunches (which r quite accurate, actually). hmm, i shall be more observant..

2008-03-13T20:46:00.002+08:00

i waited 22 minutes 4 a bus 2 bring me 2 a destination tt i would take 20 minutes 2 reach by walking. fantastic. if it wasn't drizzling i would have walked. if i knew how long i would have ended up waiting, i would have definitely walked even though it was drizzling.

and yes. i hate the rain. walking in greatly hampered. furthermore, care must be taken to avoid the puddles of water. worst still. i can't go running. argh. i jus realized marathon is bout 2.5 months away only. it was 4 when i signed up.. die. my mileage is.. pathetic.

2008-03-13T00:35:00.003+08:00

replies are excruciatingly slow.. its much faster to gather replies by taking initiative rather than waiting. but well, that's natural. i think i jus hit the 40% mark for replies only. haha. i need to speed it up.

well. got some random stuff i wanna blog about...

1. customer service. well, the customer's always right, as they say.. after all, the customer is the one holding the money, with the power to decide where he spends it on.. got super pissed recently by a food stall auntie.. was jus b4 the peak period, so there were not many ppl buying food.. she was too busy talking to the neighbouring stallholder, ignoring the fact i'm standing in front of the stall.. well. after she decided to pay attention to the fact i'm standing there, i walked off. not that she'll bother anyway, she's most likely jus paid 2 stand there n serve.. the profits won't be of a concern to her anyway.. but well. this is probably wad makes customer service so poor in singapore.

2. ever went through the paya lebar/tanjong katong area recently? the construction efforts there is staggering.. so much work is ongoing from rather long ago.. and the roads keep getting shifted 2 accomodate the works.. so much until the roads could actually be used as a drift circuit.. instead of spending so much effort 2 host the f1 races, jus close off the roads around there, get some cars n hold a drift contest! the roads r perfect orredi! need no further modification! (that's how BAD the roads there are...)

3. actually i had another thing i wanted to say. but now's not the right time. saying it now will be revealing too much of my plans.

2008-03-04T23:43:00.002+08:00

well.. finally sent my bdae invites.. if u're reading this blog chances are you've been invited too. i think. well. i didn't send invites to ppl who're overseas, so u're excluded from the previous statement. okay enough random rambling.

well details r here:
Date/time: 12 April 2008 (Saturday), 6.00pm onwards
Location: Changi Chalet M, Turnhouse Road

well basically the 2 most important details r posted here.. so for those who somehow lost the email i sent out, yea.. can refer here. anyway please pm me or something to rsvp asap.. need cfm number of people coming, ya?

2008-02-25T23:22:00.002+08:00

i think my phone battery has begun its very slow death. after a full charge (leaving overnight), the phone status indicated the battery's capacity was at 98% !!!

of course, this is only a 2% drop. but.. as phones go, most ppl noe the battery capacity indicator isn't exactly linear.. my 100% charged phone could last for half a day on idle mode when it was still brand new..

well. considering my phone is about 2.5 years old, the charge decrease is expected, but mine's still quite little! everything's still holding up well, so i dun see a need to change to another model.. if its working fine (plus i like my phone), why change it?

pls phone.. survive!

2008-02-21T00:01:00.002+08:00

finally blogging after a rather long while.. got a lot of things to write about, but lazy to. haha. got quite a few things i wanna do. but lazy. like my return to using the amazing program called SWiSH. i've planned out almost exactly wad i wanna do, n who i wanna send it out to, but i've not yet proceeded to do anything.. haha.

well. my physical fitness is also attempting to recover after a extended break.. too extended in fact. but well... besides being lazy to actually exercise, i was also sick (good excuse, huh). i wanna go back to my twice-a-week exercise cycle. but am i motivated enough to do that?

i'm hungry. guess running does that to u.

2008-01-25T09:59:00.000+08:00

i feel old. o level results released yesterday. as usual, all the stories of top scorers/success stories were published.. however there's something really different this time..

with all the top schools taking part in integrated programmes, most of the top students of the cohort aren't actually taking the o levels. so, the top scorers for this cohort r 2 gals, 1 from mgs, the other from scgs.. their score? 9 a1s, 1 a2. somehow a far cry from the legions of 10 and 11 a1s of my era. my class had 4 ppl with 10 a1s!!!

ok granted, the newspapers always count differently from the schools; they only count the number of subjects taken that year, not counting the normal mother tongue grade taken in sec 3. which means.. my class would have 4 ppl with 9 a1s (on par). but, those 11 a1ers still would thrash this year's results flat.

wad a different education system in existence now..

2008-01-22T22:54:00.000+08:00

first time i ran in 50 days. real running, not running after buses n trains. obviously, my fitness level has dropped to well.. close to zero. kinda expected, actually. now, running is painful. very painful. wonder how i ran for so long last time..

anyway jus outside my house, somebody committed some acts of 'vandalism'. sounds weird? well a picture paints a thousand words. in this case, 2 thousand words!

well, now for 3 random musings. inspired from 3 different sources.

1. there's a lot that goes through my mind. its jus whether i choose to speak my thoughts. when i dun mention something, it doesn't mean i dun think bout it. it jus means i dun intend to reveal wad i'm thinking to whoever i'm talking to.

2. don't infer too much into the things i write hear. they are deliberately cryptic. only the person who i'm talking about will understand wad, or why, i'm writing this. and it includes this chunk of text. its directed to a certain somebody. only that person noes who that person is.

3. my 'best friend ever' has made such an insignificant impact on the lives of the people around him, that in 3 months, his name has been forgotten. by 1 of my closer friends. u won't believe how the latter made my already-terrific day even better. if success could be rated by the impact on the lives of the people around you, you're worse than a cockroach crawling in the sewers, kenneth.

2008-01-19T22:48:00.001+08:00

my internet is back up again, for now. but its not fully functional. something's wrong. or several things r wrong. but i can get it working after messing with my comp for 15 mins (hardware AND software).
wad exactly happened..

on thursday morning i turned on my computer.. see an interesting message.. "found new hardware".. which was the "ethernet controller". huh? since when did i install something new? so i ignored it.. next thing i figured my internet wasn't working. i look at the RJ45 jack where u plug in the internet cable.. why is the light not on? die..

so i finally got motivation to do the final step of wad i've been wanting to do for a few weeks, actually formatting the computer. the hope was that by formatting, my already screwed-up computer will somehow de-screw-up itself n my internet will start working again. nope.

so i resolved to get a new ethernet card. since the ethernet controller is presumably dead, so why not replace it? well. went to buy it on friday.. came home, fixed it n guess wad.. it WORKS! after some coaxing and meddling with the physical n software settings (really meddling, cos it seems to work on random).

well. a partially working internet is better than a totally dead internet, definitely. its a real pain to re-install everything but slowly lor. keeps me entertained (if u could define it as entertainment).

2008-01-13T23:56:00.000+08:00

1 of my friends asked me this question about 24 hours ago.

when a fluid passes through a constriction, the velocity will increase. when the tube width increases, the velocity will decrease. however, when the fluid is travelling above the speed of sound, the latter rule is no longer obeyed; the fluid accelerates as the tube width increases. why.

brainstorming didn't help a single bit. so, the next best thing to do was to activate google n wikipedia. they were of some help. i figured out about some stuff like de laval nozzles and choked flow, which were essential to the understanding the problem.

with my newfound understanding of the topic, i tried to solve the problem (as somehow the all important information cannot be found online). using all the stuff i learned, from ideal gases to fluid behaviour, i couldn't find out why the inverse was happening. so after 90 minutes of discussion, thinking and more discussion.. i'm back to where i started.

can somebody please enlighten me.

2008-01-12T21:56:00.000+08:00

when i have no interest in something, i'll won't even give the slightest bit of attention. i'll usually juz dismiss wadeva it is, without putting too much effort into it. i will start talking in one-liners, with utterly no attempt to carry on a conversation, if any. well, if i couldn't care less about something, why should i devote my energy into it?

on another note, its amazing that when a person does something really really drastic, u can see another person's true colours in broad daylight. the change in attitude can either be hypocritical or genuine; it's up to you to figure it out yourself. even if figure that the change is genuine, it's also up to you to decide how u would want to react to it.

when i've made up my mind, nothing's gonna change it.

2008-01-04T20:56:00.000+08:00

going to chalets have always been something that i look forward to, whenever i have the chance. i was mentally prepared to go for a 2d1n chalet, which is rather short.. in the end everyone read the details wrongly. it was from 2nd to 3rd inclusive.. (which means from 2nd to 4th, in more layman terms) so in between, jus go home n come back lor.

on the 1st night the turnout was quite expected, with quite a good response..the 2nd night response was pathetic as expected, as the many promises to attend were broken.. left only 8 in the chalet. 1 was totally knocked out, due to a lack of sleep for about 36 hours.. so that left 7.. which is a good number to chat with.. then as time passed, the number of people still awake decreased until 3.. which is rather expected in most cases.

well, chatting the entire night away is an interesting experience.. getting in contact with people i haven't been talking to for ages, and finding about things i'd least expect. although my body clock is totally screwed up now, it'll probably reset in 1 or 2 days.. i'm quite adaptable to changes in sleep patterns apparently, as long as i'm not woken up by an alarm clock..

well, after the chalet, i've become rather enlightened. its amazing how much more u understand people after a night-long chat. especially in such a setting, u get to talk about things that don't appear in regular conversations.

2007-12-27T22:23:00.000+08:00

i think i'm growing out of shape.. haven't exercised since that rather traumatic day.. i'm starting to get the 'phantom pains' that tell me that i need exercise more.. phantom pains? i think i'm the only person who gets them.. so let me explain.

my right leg is aching for no apparent reason.. like the ache after a vigorous exercise.. though the only thing i've did was walk and sit down.. i got several more kinds, like feeling breathless very easily (climbing stairs enough) or aching arms.. its like my body's way of saying i'm unfit.

maybe it's because i'm rather tired after deciding to help a friend with a not-so-good lobang.. i feel like i'm being overused.. i was staring at the msn contacts screen for 1 minute earlier.. no mood to move at all.. need more sleep..

2007-12-22T00:08:00.000+08:00

i finally got around to clearing the trash that's been sitting in my computer. in other words, i'm proceeding to format it. got a staggering lot of stuff that i'm clearing out now.

games that have been gathering inches of dust.
old documents that really have no purpose.
installers to many programs, even some used 4 years ago.
duplicates and triplicates of photos.
any folder that seems to be still there though i uninstalled the program.

basically, i've been ruthlessly clearing almost everything from my computer, until i hit a point where i need ponder my next move. there's sentimental junk sitting around wasting space, which i'm still pondering wad to do with them.

my many flash files and presentations (inclusive of all the other files associated with it).
some random works made during jc.
my srp and ssef research notes and documents.
my pw work (1% of me says keep, the other 99% says banish this terrible memory).

plus a lot more. i've probably deleted about 20gb of stuff so far (mostly games i've stopped playing). planning to eradicate even more, probably all the irrelevant things still left behind, after i've fully pondered their purpose in wasting my hard disc space.. before i finally format my computer!!

why am i doing this? i got too annoyed with internet explorer. too much interaction problems with embedded media players, facebook, etc. so i tried firefox, and realised i needed a lot more than it to save my computer. thus the great change sweeping over my computer now..

anyway after testing my blog with firefox.. i realised that my blog isn't firefox compatible. the source code that i've been using, some commands aren't applicable on firefox. my scrollbars are ugly on firefox. need to figure out this problem sooner or later.. another mammoth task ahead for me.. hai...

2007-12-13T16:49:00.000+08:00

jus realized that runpix.com got more features to tracking marathon runners than jus the finish times.. it has other interesting details listed.

my average speed was 8.3kph.
from start to 8km, my average speed was 10.2kph.
from 8km to 21km, my average speed was 10.1kph.
from 21km to 27km, my average speed was 9.5kph. considering i started cramping during this time, this is really fast!
from 27km till the finish, my average speed was.. 6.3kph. quite obvious that i was walking more or less to the finish line, huh.

other stuff of interest:
when the first runner finished, i started cramping (22km mark).
when the first female runner finished, i just hit the turning point..

anyway my race was more or less downhill after the first runner finished.. haha.

2007-12-13T13:45:00.000+08:00

went to update all of my links. realized i copied-and-pasted my old set of links, instead of the latest set. oops. not that anybody found out.. who actually bothers with the links, anyway.

2007-12-12T15:19:00.000+08:00

taxi fares went up. across all the companies, they are increasing their fares to match comfort, dollar for dollar. basically now cab fares have doubled. actually, more than that. the meter jumps in 20 cent increments, the peak hour surcharge is 2/3 a midnight surcharge.. only booking fees gone down. this is madness.

somehow i think this is gonna have the opposite effect on business for cab drivers. instead of increasing their revenue (to counter touts), it may end up dropping, in the worst-case scenario. people like me, who are already averse to taking cabs, will now distance themselves from taxis almost totally, unless i've no other choice. people who take cabs out of convenience.. they will probably think twice before sticking out their hand to hail a taxi..

gonna avoid any post-midnight trips outside of a 2km radius from my house.. midnight surcharge is bad enough as it is, with trips from the city costing over 20 bucks (lucky i can almost always find 3 other ppl).. now they cost 40?!?! forget it. if night rider services were more direct, i would still have this option.

some people say that singapore taxis were very cheap to begin with.. with this very drastic fare hike, i think those people can start to withdraw their statement.. this makes the previous taxi rate hikes seem.. trivial.

2007-12-07T19:32:00.000+08:00

jus finished redesigning my blog for the second time.. didn't like the previous template, but spent too much time trying to troubleshoot.. so i didn't wanna give it up so fast. back to monochrome colours apparently.. looks the best to me.

i designed this template quite literally from scratch, after i realized i had more trouble trying to figure out the nonsense that was in my old templates.. my old templates were done using more hijacking.. this time the scripting is 90% my original work.

the main picture.. came across it while browsing deviantart.. it looks amazing.. gives a sort of an apocylaptic feeling.. not the original intention but this works. wanted to look for a matrix-like green background.. but found this instead..

still got 1 more thing before this template is complete.. figuring out how to make the scrollbars transparent. spent 2 hours figuring it out and the closest i got was making everything behind the scrollbar transparent, including the background. some more work here, some other day.

2007-12-05T19:06:00.000+08:00

i've recovered from most of the damage my body sustained from the marathon, expect a few nagging muscle aches in my legs.. the knees do not show any signs of pain, but i'm not gonna experiment.. i can walk down flights of stairs without any real discomfort, though there is still some pains here n there..

but regarding any further exercise, i've a temporary phobia of it.. i had more than enough for now.. maybe too much. but at least i'm in a good physical condition (when i recover fully from the aches)..

well, among all the marathoners i know of, i'm second.. haha. got plenty of interesting photos taken too, except most of them were taken from only 2 locations.. near the finish line and at the finish line.. 42km course and the only photos that were taken were at these 2 locations?!

on a more sour note, to those ppl who try to mess with me, be careful. dun think i dunno who u r, or wad u're doing, hiding under the blanket of anonymity that the internet provides. u leave enough stains behind for me to know who did it. i'm very skilled at observation, so dun think i'm blind to all this. and, as a final word of caution, i may not take any direct action, but beware. i dun forget easily.

2007-12-02T22:45:00.000+08:00

well. the marathon's finally over. completed in a time of 5 hours and 10 minutes. must wait till i get my cert to get the official timing from the chip.. the marathon was one hell of a roller coaster ride, that's for sure. never felt so much pain/fatigue in 1 place, and probably never had so much stupid thoughts rolling through my head before..

roughly wad happened in my run..
for the first 2 hours me and aloy tan (my running partner for the race) were going at roughly 10km an hour, which is a pace i didn't train at and had some difficulty maintaining after about 90 minutes.. furthermore, at the 9.5km mark (roughly), i orredi felt the first signs of exhaustion (so fast!)... at the 14km mark (at fort road), we saw the first elite runners running the OTHER DIRECTION to the endpoint.. in other words they were like.. 16km ahead of us. disgusting.

after the first 2 hours i started slowing down, where aloy broke off ahead... maintaining well until 22km. left calf start tightening up.. die. cramps. so i would have been spending the rest 20km fighting cramps, with the distance travelled consisting of a mixture of jogging, walking and stretching..

not the whole 20km was spent doing this.. met back with aloy somewhere around 27/28km.. where he was another victim of cramps.. worse than mine. walked all the way to fort road so he could recover.. in the end he did. but i was worse off, in the end.. if i maintained my limping run i would have been faster. but that's not the whole point, rite?

when the sun started shining really brightly, i died faster. the lack of salt and water, plus the cramping was taking its toll on me, both physically and mentally. 90% of my last 6km was spent walking, cos i lost most of my motivation.. nobody around me to talk to, plus my mp3 player low batt!

at the last water point of the race, i poured a cup of plain water over my head.. then some trickled into my mouth.. was wondering why they gave salt water instead.. until i ran my finger across my cheek and found...... salt crystals. a lot of them.

well, in the end aloy ran sub-5, but i'm still perfectly fine with my timing. my objective was to run below 5:30, and i've achieved that objective.. could have completed earlier, up to probably 4:30, but a lot of what-ifs would have been involved. and speculating isn't gonna change anything, so why bother.

for my run, i really have to thank aloy loads, for the quick pace he set at the beginning, which helped me cut chunks from my eventual timing (and shorten my agony). though at times i was more of a liability, he stuck with me for a very long time.. without your motivation and mutual help things would not have worked out so fine.

for all the people who cheered the runners on, a big thanks too.. some were volunteers, others were just people passing by.. but every little bit counts..

to the volunteers and medics manning their stations.. your support was priceless for the conduct of the race.. to the people distributing deep-heat rub, you're very important to the leigons of people cramping all over.. even though there was a severe shortage.

a tribute goes out to those who finished the marathon with huge grazes across their legs, knees and elbows.. all of them cramped so badly they just fell down where they stood, with no time to break their fall, giving them those nasty wounds. but after patching them up, they just continued running, finishing the marathon even though their physical state was breaking.. i dunno how they managed to finish.. my respect goes out to them.

congrats to all the finishers of 42.195km.